These pictures show a small part of the littoral of SW France, during the highest tides of the winter.
The images of the three first rows show the high tide during the first week of January, tidal range 80.
Then, there is the beach at the end of January, 31st, at low tide, one day before the highest tide of the winter on February, 1st, tidal range 114.
The sand dunes have been partially destroyed by the strong waves, and the erosion is worrying.
The following images show the coast two days after the highest tide.
The pictures 8477 and 8493 show the boundary of the dune. The paler sand is the top of a vertical wall of several metres above the beach.
It was impossible to descend to the beach this morning.
The sea has worn away about 10/12 metres of the dune.

Plants such as European marram grass or European beachgrass are planted to maintain the sand.
These plants may have long roots of about ten metres sinking in deeply into the soil.
Here, sand patches destabilized by the strong waves have slid down the dune, and we can see the long roots of these grasses.
Other patches with plant species such as “Strawberry Tree” (Arbutus unedo) have slid too.
Some pictures show the erosion with the sand sliding down the dune and ending in the water.
These images were taken three days after the highest tide.

The latest images show the beach and the dune some hours after the spring tide of early March, tidal range 115.
Several metres of the sand dune have been swallowed up by the sea.

From the picture 8657, after the storm “Christine” demolished everything in its path, one day after the spring tide.
The stairs have been broken and removed, similar to “Stairway for Hell” above the drop.
The top of the vertical sand cliffs is now several metres above the beach.
The sand has been swallowed up by the waves of the high tide, with tidal range 112 and strong winds.
Now a hard labour is starting, and will probably last several weeks or months, removing the sand on one side, and adding it to the other side…

From the picture 8725, we can see the erosion along the coast some kilometres further North.
Several dead seabirds are scattered along the shore. Any trace of oil pollution, only natural death due to several following storms.
A difficult period for nature and humans…